These intense rays are then channelled off into beamlines and focused on to samples of material, like the Mary Rose timbers, allowing their fine structure to be analysed.

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Dr Dror thinks that in about 25% of cases, tiny samples or the mixing of material from more than one person can lead to such ambiguity.

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To convince wary airline executives that carbon-fiber body material was strong, Boeing sales teams carried samples and hammers, letting airline executives whack the composite with all their might.

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Today doctors must follow complicated steps to prepare samples, and 10% of DNA material is lost, ruining results.

FORBES: Gold digger

Laboratory tests of water samples in New Orleans found it loaded with fecal material.

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"If an ant heap is a meter high over ground, which is to say, about 3 feet, it's probably digging up material from three to four meters below, so you can collect samples from those ant heaps, " said Mr. Petzer, who says that is a constant ratio.

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Soil samples from around the stone's socket will be analysed and any organic material found radio-carbon dated if possible.

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